Archive for April, 2009

Migrating birds face longer journeys due to climate change, experts warn

Birds face longer migration due to climate change, experts warn

Journey could increase by 250 miles, posing serious threat to many species

Migrating birds such as the garden warbler and whitethroat will face longer journeys because of climate change, experts warned today.

A team of scientists led by Durham University has demonstrated that while the birds’ breeding ranges are likely to shift northwards, their wintering areas will not, thus increasing the length of their journeys by up to 250 miles. The study, published in the Journal of Biogeography, has serious implications for many of the birds returning this month to Britain to breed.

The research team used computer simulation models similar to those used by weather forecasters to analyse how climate change might affect the migration patterns of European Sylvia warblers.

Every year these tiny birds – some weighing as little as 12g – travel thousands of miles northwards from their African winter-quarters to breed in Europe and Asia. Up to 500 million birds undertake this epic journey to take advantage of the long summer days and glut of insect food in temperate latitudes.

via Migrating birds face longer journeys due to climate change, experts warn | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

Pelosi calls for panel to probe Wall Street

OPS:  Fine, but how about a panel to probe Pelosi too?

Pelosi calls for panel to probe Wall Street

- Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying that the American people are demanding “discipline and accountability” after the multibillion-dollar federal bailouts, promised Wednesday to create a legislative commission with broad oversight to investigate the causes of Wall Street irregularities and their full costs to taxpayers.

Pelosi, speaking to the Commonwealth Club of California, said she wants the panel to be modeled after the Pecora Commission, a bipartisan investigative body established by the U.S. Senate in 1932 to examine the causes and abuses of the Wall Street crash of 1929 and to prevent a repeat.

“They investigated what happened in the markets,” including conflicts of interests and irregularities that set off such devastating effects on the U.S. economy, she said. When the commission issued its findings during the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “they had tangible recommendations,” she said, which helped generate widespread public support for major banking system reforms and new securities laws.

via Pelosi calls for panel to probe Wall Street.

Satellite may send energy to Valley

OPS:  Sounds dangerous, on many levels.

Satellite may send energy to Valley

PG&E signs on to buy electricity starting in 2017 from $2 billion-plus project.

via Satellite may send energy to Valley – Local – fresnobee.com.

THE MOVEMENT BUILDS FOR PROGRESSIVE TAXATION

THE MOVEMENT BUILDS FOR PROGRESSIVE TAXATION

RaiseIncomeTax.jpgIt’s Tax Day across the land.

Even as people make that last minute dash to file their taxes today, around the country economic justice advocates are calling on federal and state leaders to restore fairness to the tax code.

In fact, a movement aimed at shifting the nation’s tax policy by raising taxes for the wealthiest is taking off across the country. Such a shift in policy would mean reversing 30 years worth of federal tax and budget policy that has primarily favored the rich.

Improving tax policy was a large part of President Barack Obama’s campaign program. Although he’s implemented one of the largest tax cuts for working families in U.S. history, economic justice advocates say that Obama’s tax proposals must do more.

In order to promote economic recovery, federal and local governments will need to expand their sources of revenue to provide for investments in healthcare, environment, and infrastructure. A truly “progressive taxation” system — one where people are taxed according to their ability to pay — is the best way to raise the funds needed to pay for the bold initiatives in Obama’s stimulus and budget plans, advocates say.

A new report by the D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies finds that a more progressive system could raise almost a half a trillion dollars per year. “By seriously taxing the top, as we did in the 1950s, we could raise the revenues we need to better invest in infrastructure, education, and retrofitting our energy system,” says Chuck Collins, one of the report’s authors. “Appropriately targeted, higher taxes on the top would also serve to dampen the speculative frenzy that has cratered our economy.”

via ISS – THE MOVEMENT BUILDS FOR PROGRESSIVE TAXATION.

Best Weekend Ever: Pittsburgh Samaritan treks to Chicago, performs five good deeds for strangers he found on Craigslist

Best Weekend Ever: Pittsburgh Samaritan treks to Chicago, performs

five good deeds for strangers he found on Craigslist

Need a ride? Car battery? Bathroom remodeled? No feat too big for this 29-year-old Steelers fan

Oklahoma Senate Passes 10th Amendment Resolution

Senate Passes 10th Amendment Resolution

HyperLink

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: State Rep. Charles Key

Capitol: (405) 557-7354

OKLAHOMA CITY (April 15, 2009) – State Rep. Charles Key today praised the Senate passage of a resolution demanding the federal government cease and desist mandates beyond its authority as designated by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“Today, thousands of regular citizens showed up at this state Capitol to say they want the federal government to follow the United States Constitution,” Key, R-Oklahoma City, said. “I believe that this piece of legislation is one of the most important ones we will pass this year and I think that it will give the president and members of the U.S. Congress reason to reconsider much of the legislation they are proposing.”

House Joint Resolution 1003 declares Oklahoma’s sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment in all matters not otherwise enumerated or granted to the federal government under the U.S. Constitution. The resolution also calls on the president and other agents of the federal government to “cease and desist” mandates beyond the scope of “constitutionally delegated powers” and repeal all compulsory federal legislation directing states to comply under threat of civil or criminal sanctions or in order to gain federal funding.

“It is abundantly clear to many U.S. citizens that the federal government has violated the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution and they are voicing their outrage and concern through this legislation,” Key said. “Lawmakers in other states have also been looking into similar resolutions since Oklahoma became the first state file and pass Tenth Amendment Legislation. We now have an opportunity to be the first state to have it signed it into law.”

Key noted that the resolution refers also to a 1992 Supreme Court ruling further stressing that the federal government cannot simply commandeer the regulatory and legislative processes of the states.

“Once the resolution is on the governor’s desk, I hope he will quickly sign House Joint Resolution 1003 into law,” Key said. “I also hope that when it is distributed to President Barack Obama and other elected officials of the federal government that they will recall the oaths to the United States Constitution that they all took and take heed.”

via Oklahoma House of Representatives – Media Summary.

The Nanny State Gone Haywire, in the Reddest of Red States

The Nanny State Gone Haywire, in the Reddest of Red States

When people can’t solve their own problems, they turn to The Nanny State. Conservatives claim a desire for small government, but they advocate strict law and order provisions pack US jails fuller than in any other country, soon to include a couple 11 year old boys who snuck a look at internet porn. They loves some of that Nanny State!

Commentary By: Steven Reynolds

The Nanny State? I’ll bet that term was invented by conservatives who were trying to get the best of liberals. They think government is too large when it works to protect people from their own actions. Sort of a libertarian critique on liberal government, I suppose, that demands personal responsibility rather than an all-protective government.

As a general rule, I think I’m there with a critique of government that indemnifies people fromt heir own mistakes. I’d rather see a government not protect people from being responsible for their actions. So a critique of the Nanny State sits well with me, to some degree. Still, conservatives use the term innapropriately, and frankly they depend on the government to bail them out time and again. The bottom line here for most conservatives is they want enforcement of the laws they like, and funding of the programs they like, and all other laws and programs are provided by “The Nanny State.” Yes, hypocrisy is the rule of the day for Republican conservatives, as usual.

via All Spin Zone » The Nanny State Gone Haywire, in the Reddest of Red States.

The NYT’s predictable revelation: new FISA law enabled massive abuses

The NYT’s predictable revelation: new FISA law enabled massive abuses – by - Glenn Greenwald

In The New York Times last night, James Risen and Eric Lichtblau — the reporters who won the Pulitzer Prize for informing the nation in 2005 that the NSA was illegally spying on Americans on the orders of George Bush, a revelation that produced no consequences other than the 2008 Democratic Congress’ legalizing most of those activities and retroactively protecting the wrongdoers — pass on leaked revelations of brand new NSA domestic spying abuses, ones enabled by the 2008 FISA law. The article reports that the spying abuses are “significant and systemic”; involve improper interception of “significant amounts” of the emails and telephone calls of Americans, including purely domestic communications; and that, under Bush (prior to the new FISA law), the NSA tried to eavesdrop with no warrants on a member of Congress traveling to the Middle East. The sources for the article report that “the problems had grown out of changes enacted by Congress last July in the law that regulates the government’s wiretapping powers.”

In reacting to these leaks, I share Digby’s sentiments entirely: “It was so inevitable that I can’t even find the energy to get worked up about it.” I also don’t want this news to distract from what ought to be the singular big story of the day — namely, whether Obama will release the 3 key Bush DOJ memos that legalized specific torture techniques (as Andrew Sullivan correctly says, a failure of full disclosure “will betray all [] who supported him to restore the rule of law”). Nonetheless, there are some critical facts that need to be highlighted in order to prevent distortion of the meaning of the Risen/Lichtblau article.

via The NYT’s predictable revelation: new FISA law enabled massive abuses – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

N.S.A.’s Intercepts Exceed Limits Set by Congress

N.S.A.’s Intercepts Exceed Limits Set by Congress

N.S.A.’s Intercepts Exceed Limits Set by Congress: “The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, government officials said in recent interviews.” Obama Administration Claims to Have Made “Corrections,” But That is Not Verifiable Because the Program is Secret.

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, government officials said in recent interviews.

Several intelligence officials, as well as lawyers briefed about the matter, said the N.S.A. had been engaged in “overcollection” of domestic communications of Americans. They described the practice as significant and systemic, although one official said it was believed to have been unintentional.

via N.S.A.’s Intercepts Exceed Limits Set by Congress – NYTimes.com.

How to Think About Taxes

How to Think About Taxes

Here’s my contribution to today’s tax day festivities: an effort to get you to think about federal taxes a little bit differently than usual.  Normally, when we talk about taxes, we end up talking about percentages of people: the top 1% pay a certain amount, the bottom third pay a different amount, etc.  But this is the wrong way to look at things.  What we ought to be looking at is percentages of income.

Have your eyes glazed over yet?  Just wait!  It’s going to get worse.  But first a caveat: the numbers that follow aren’t exact.  I don’t think they’re way off the mark, but they’re the result of some rough interpolation from several different data sources.  Anyone with access to more detailed data is welcome to correct this, but in the meantime it should be close enough to give you an idea of how to look at this stuff.

So: percentages of income.  What I mean by this is that you’d expect a group of people with, say, one-fifth of the nation’s total income to pay one-fifth of total federal taxes.  (Note: one-fifth = 20%, or one quintile in tax-speak.)  It doesn’t really matter if that group has one-fifth of the people or not, just that it has one-fifth of the money.  Like this:

via How to Think About Taxes | Mother Jones.

SEC Says Church Leaders Swindled Old People to Pay for High Life

SEC Says Church Leaders Swindled Old People to Pay for High Life – by ELIZABETH BANICKI

(CN) – Seven leaders of a church in Queens, N.Y., defrauded elderly parishioners of more than $12 million by encouraging them to invest in hedge funds – then using the money to buy themselves a Bentley, jewelry and overseas trips, the SEC says in Brooklyn Federal Court.

The SEC sued Isaac I. Ovid, Aaron Riddle, J. Jonathan Coleman, Stephen Cina, Cory A. Martin, Timothy Smith, and Robert J. Riddle, and the two entities they allegedly used to carry out the scheme: Jadis Capital Inc., hedge fund manager of the Logos Fund and the Donum Fund, and Jadis Capital’s subsidiary, Jadis Investments LLC.

SEC prosecutors say that the church leaders raised more than $12 million from more than 80 investors, mostly elderly parishioners, by promising returns as high as 75 percent.

But as soon as the defendants received the money – from January to November 2005 – they bought luxury cars, jewelry, clothes, meals, and expensive foreign trips, says the SEC. They also allegedly paid operating expenses at Jadis Capital and Ja

via Courthouse News Service.

Three Steps To Declutter Your Computer

Three Steps To Declutter Your Computer

Welcome to the first in a series of three posts over the next few weeks on how to “Simplify Your Online Life.” This first post will focus on the big picture of how to declutter your computer.

This past Sunday was both Easter and the Masters golf tournament. We had no Easter plans, and I’m not a golfer, so while my husband and a few good friends whooped and hollered as dark horse Kenny Perry fell behind and Argentina’s Angel Cabrera pulled ahead, I spent a good four-hour period decluttering my computer.

OK. At this point, I know you’re thinking what a sad little life I have, but seriously, I couldn’t take it anymore. My computer had become the junk drawer of my electronic life. Files were stacked ten to a one-room apartment, e-mails were gathering mold in dark corners and bookmarks were living in squalor. So much so that finding things on my desktop and hard drive had begun taking up significant amounts of time.

via Karen Leland: Three Steps To Declutter Your Computer.

Cleopatra’s Tomb Believed To Be At 1 Of 3 Egyptian Archaeological Sites

Cleopatra’s Tomb Believed To Be At 1 Of 3 Egyptian Archaeological Sites

CAIRO — Archaeologists will begin excavating sites in Egypt next week in an attempt to solve a mystery that has stymied historians for hundreds of years: Where is the final resting place of doomed lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony?

Archaeologists looking for the tombs of the celebrated queen of Egypt and the Roman general will begin excavating three sites at a temple where tombs may be located, Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities said in a statement Wednesday.

Cleopatra and Mark Antony, whose relationship was later immortalized by William Shakespeare and then in a movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, could have been buried in a deep shaft in a temple near the Mediterranean Sea, the council said.

Archaeologists last year unearthed the alabaster head of a Cleopatra statue, 22 coins bearing Cleopatra’s image and a mask believed to belong to Mark Antony at the temple.

The three sites were identified last month during a radar survey of the temple of Taposiris Magna, the council’s statement said. The temple is located near the northern coastal city of Alexandria and was built during the reign of King Ptolemy II (282-246 B.C.)

via Cleopatra’s Tomb Believed To Be At 1 Of 3 Egyptian Archaeological Sites.

GOP Strategist: Coleman Risking Long-Term Damage

OPS:  To anyone who thinks, he is already damaged good

GOP Strategist: Coleman Risking Long-Term Damage

Norm Coleman is risking long-term damage to his reputation and any chance of running for office down the road if he keeps prolonging the Minnesota recount, a high-ranking Republican strategist warned on Wednesday.

Long-time GOP consultant Craig Shirley, CEO of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, said that he supports and expects the former Minnesota Senator to appeal a recent three-judge-panel decision declaring Al Franken the recipient of the most votes in the Senate election.

“At this point, he might as well play the hand he’s been dealt,” said Shirley. “He has nothing to lose.”

Beyond that, Shirley added, Coleman is playing with fire and putting his legacy and future on the line. “If this goes much farther, he will lose whatever goodwill he has remaining with the voters of Minnesota and he can kiss a political comeback goodbye. There is a fine line between toughness and obstinacy.”

The remarks are some of the most sober yet on Coleman’s options from within the GOP. On Wednesday, The Hill newspaper quoted an anonymous Republican campaign operative saying of the St. Paul Republican: “He’s cooked … At this point, continuing to carry on only damages his brand for future bids for office.”

via GOP Strategist: Coleman Risking Long-Term Damage.

With anti-addiction pill, ‘no urge, no craving’ – CNN.com

With anti-addiction pill, ‘no urge, no craving’

CENTRAL FALLS, Rhode Island (CNN) — A no-frills bar called Goober’s, just north of Providence, Rhode Island, is probably the last place you’d expect to find a debate over cutting-edge addiction therapy. But this is where Walter Kent, a retired mechanic, spends his Fridays. He helps in the kitchen and hangs out in the bar, catching up with old friends.

Most addiction specialists would call this playing with fire, or worse. That’s because for more than 30 years, Kent was a hard-core alcoholic. His drinks of choice were Heineken beer and Jacob Ginger brandy, but anything with alcohol would do.

“It’s like a little kid wanting a piece of candy. You see it, you want the taste of it.” He closes his eyes and sniffs the air, remembering the feeling. “You can be by yourself, and all of a sudden get even a hint of alcohol, just the smell of it, and say, ‘Oh, I need a drink.’ That sensation is not something you can get rid of.”

But today, Kent isn’t tempted in the least. He says the credit goes to a prescription medication — a pill called naltrexone. It’s part of a new generation of anti-addiction drugs that may turn the world of rehab on its head.

Dr. Mark Willenbring, who oversees scientific research at the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, says alcoholism has reached a point similar to one depression reached 30 years ago — when the development of Prozac and other antidepressants took mental health care out of the asylum and put it in homes and doctors’ offices.

“There will be a ‘Prozac moment,’ ” Willenbring says, “when primary care doctors start handling functional alcoholics.”

via With anti-addiction pill, ‘no urge, no craving’ – CNN.com.

Rep. Alan Grayson: On Goldman Sachs Ditching December

On Goldman Sachs Ditching December

I heard an interesting anecdote at a Financial Services Committee hearing last month (see the video below). Robert Herz of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) said that financial services companies about to go bankrupt sometimes demanded a change in accounting rules about two weeks before they went under. A bank being forced to admit it is broke is not pleasant, but it is necessary, because no private actor will lend to a bank whose financial situation is obscured or hidden.

via Rep. Alan Grayson: On Goldman Sachs Ditching December.

Gov. Rick Perry: Texas might have to secede.

Gov. Rick Perry: Texas might have to secede.

perry-finger1.jpgGov. Rick Perry (R-TX) was one of the dozens of Republican lawmakers who are addressing the anti-Obama tea parties today. He told the crowd he didn’t believe they were all “right-wing extremists,” as others had sought to portray them. “But if you are, I’m with you!” he shouted. After, he told reporters that Texas might have to secede from the union:

Perry told reporters following his speech that Texans might get so frustrated with the government they would want to secede from the union.

“There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that.”

via Think Progress » Gov. Rick Perry: Texas might have to secede..

Banker linked to 1980s S&L scandal dies after jumping off Tampa International Airport garage – St. Petersburg Times

OPS:  Don’t you have to wonder if he really “Jumped”?

Banker linked to 1980s S&L scandal dies after jumping off Tampa International Airport garage

TAMPA — One of the leading figures of the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s jumped to his death from a parking garage at Tampa International Airport last week.

Michael Wise, 64, leaped from the ninth floor of the garage in the early afternoon of April 8. The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death an apparent suicide. It’s unclear why Wise jumped.

Wise came to St. Petersburg earlier this decade to get a fresh start in the mortgage business.

Wise was a former Kansas clothing salesman who became best known as the chairman of Silverado Banking in Denver, where Neil Bush (brother of former President George W. Bush and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush) was one of the directors and former Tampa Palms developer Kenneth Good was a major borrower. The institution’s collapse in 1988 cost taxpayers $1 billion.

via Banker linked to 1980s S&L scandal dies after jumping off Tampa International Airport garage – St. Petersburg Times.

The “Teabag” Protests Smack of Neo-McCarthyism

The “Teabag” Protests Smack of Neo-McCarthyism

Today’s “teabag” protests would be funny, if they didn’t make me think of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and what he might have accomplished if Fox News existed during his time.

On February 9, 1950, McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin, said to the Women’s Republican Club of Wheeling, West Virginia,

“While I cannot take the time to name all the men in the State Department who have been named as members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring, I have here in my hand a list of 205.”

McCarthy never released the names on the list, and there is no evidence that he had any real knowledge of any actual Communist Party members or spies in the State Department. But that didn’t stop McCarthy from going on a four-year rampage, destroying people’s careers and lives based on lies, innuendo and guilt by association. By the time Special Counsel for the Army Joseph Welch asked McCarthy during a hearing of the Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate Committee on Government Operations on March 11, 1954, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”, the country had started to figure out that McCarthy was nothing but a charlatan, using fear and lies for political gain.

via Mitchell Bard: The “Teabag” Protests Smack of Neo-McCarthyism.

The Corporatization of Public Education

The Corporatization of Public Education

Education Secretary Arne Duncan. (Photo: Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune)

Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s pledge to put more big-city mayors in charge of their school districts would exclude democratic forms of school governance and let big businesses decide the fate of public schools.

Before an audience of big-city mayors and school superintendents in late March, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan offered an early – and troubling – indication of his vision for the future of public K-12 education in the United States. Duncan told audience members at the Mayors’ National Forum on Education in Washington, DC, that more mayors need to take control of low-performing, urban school districts, and that he was prepared to do whatever it takes to shift leadership of urban districts from school boards to City Halls. “I’ll come to your cities. I’ll meet with your editorial boards. I’ll talk with your business communities,” Duncan said. “I will be there.”(1)

Right now, seven major cities have complete mayoral control over their public school systems, including Washington, DC; New York, and Chicago, where Duncan spent eight years as the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools system working under Mayor Richard Daley. These districts under mayoral control, Duncan explained, are more stable and benefit from stronger leadership. “Part of the reason urban education has struggled historically is you haven’t had that leadership from the top,” Duncan said. “Where you’ve seen real progress in the sense of innovation, guess what the common denominator is? Mayoral control.”

via t r u t h o u t | The Corporatization of Public Education.

Endgame for Gramm?

Endgame for Gramm?

By Robert Scheer

One wonders if Phil Gramm has been made just a tad nervous by the news on Tuesday that one of UBS’ super-wealthy private clients has pleaded guilty to tax evasion. That’s the second case in two weeks involving the bank at which the former senator is a vice chairman, and 100 other clients are under investigation for possible bank-assisted tax fraud.

Gramm, the Republican former chair of the Senate Finance Committee, where he authored much of the deregulatory legislation at the heart of the current banking meltdown, has for the six years since he left office helped lead a foreign-owned bank specializing in tax dodges for the wealthy. These schemes by the Swiss-based UBS not only force the rest of us taxpayers to pay more to make up the government revenue shortfall but are blatantly illegal. In February, UBS admitted to having committed fraud and conspiracy and agreed to pay a fine of $780 million. Republican “Tea Baggers” take note: Offshore tax havens do not equal populist revolt.

In UBS’ “deferred prosecution agreement” with the Justice Department, the bank agreed to turn over the names of its secret account holders to avoid a criminal indictment. The complicity of top executives in this far-ranging scheme to use foreign tax havens to cheat the U.S. treasury of billions in uncollected taxes was noted at the time in a Justice Department statement: “Swiss bankers routinely traveled to the United States to market Swiss bank secrecy to United States clients interested in attempting to evade United States income taxes.”

via Truthdig – Reports – Endgame for Gramm?.

How Goldman Posted a Profitable Quarter: They “Skipped” December

Washington’s Blog.

How Goldman Posted a Profitable Quarter: They “Skipped” December

Nouriel Roubini wrote in March that Goldman Sachs was insolvent:

So for the Treasury to hide behind the “systemic risk” excuse to fork out another $30 billion to AIG is a polite way to say that without such a bailout (and another half-dozen government bailout programs such as TAF, TSLF, PDCF, TARP, TALF and a program that allowed $170 billion of additional debt borrowing by banks and other broker-dealers, with a full government guarantee), Goldman Sachs and every other broker-dealer and major U.S. bank would already be fully insolvent today.

Yet Goldman reported a $1.7 billion dollar profit for last quarter.

How did Goldman do it?

Well, as Floyd Norris – chief financial correspondent for the New York Times – explains, Goldman simply didn’t report results for December 2008, a month in which it took huge write-downs.

Coral Fossils Suggest That Sea Level Can Rise Rapidly

Coral Fossils Suggest That Sea Level Can Rise Rapidly

Evidence from fossil coral reefs in Mexico underlines the potential for a sudden jump in sea levels because of global warming, scientists report in a new study.

The study, published in the journal Nature, suggests that a sudden rise of 6.5 feet to 10 feet occurred within a span of 50 to 100 years about 121,000 years ago, at the end of the last warm interval between ice ages.

“The potential for sustained rapid ice loss and catastrophic sea-level rise in the near future is confirmed by our discovery of sea-level instability” in that period, the authors write.

Yet other experts on corals and climate are faulting the work, saying that big questions about coastal risks in a warming world remain unresolved.

One of the most momentous and enduring questions related to human-caused global warming is how fast and far seas may rise.

Studies of past climate shifts, particularly warmups at the ends of ice ages, show that fast-eroding ice sheets have sometimes raised sea levels worldwide in bursts of up to several yards in a century.

via Coral Fossils Suggest That Sea Level Can Rise Rapidly – NYTimes.com.

DHS Report: Not About Politics, About Hate Groups

YouTube – DHS Report: Not About Politics, About Hate Groups.

US Readies Plans for High-Speed Rail Development

US Readies Plans for High-Speed Rail Development

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is expected to unveil its plans on Thursday for accelerating development of high-speed rail, a concept that in the past has had mixed political support and little public funding.

“It will be broad and strategic,” Karen Rae, acting head of the Federal Railroad Administration, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday about the initiative described by officials as President Barack Obama’s top transportation priority.

“It’s going to talk about how we begin to create this new vision for high-speed and intercity rail,” Rae said.

White House and transportation officials have spent the past several weeks weighing plans for developing at least six high-speed corridors.

High-speed rail initiatives are in various planning stages in California, Florida, Nevada, the Carolinas and the Northeast. States are already formulating how to use the large appropriation for high-speed rail projects in the economic stimulus act.

“Some of these plans are 20 years old,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in an interview this week with Reuters Financial Television.

In February, Congress included $8 billion for rail development in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and Obama has included another $5 billion for the efforts in the White House’s proposed budget.

via US Readies Plans for High-Speed Rail Development | CommonDreams.org.

Medical Marijuana Requests Climb Sky High

Medical Marijuana Requests Climb Sky High 

Dispensary owners report 50 to 300 percent rise since Obama took office

The number of ailing people turning to medical marijuana to ease their symptoms has spiked this year, say dispensary owners in some of the 13 states where it’s legal.

Requests have jumped anywhere from 50 to 300 percent, they say, since President Barack Obama took office and signaled that he won’t use federal marijuana laws to override state laws as the Bush administration did. Others say the economic downturn may also be responsible as more people without insurance are seeking alternatives to costly medications.

In the past few months, marijuana co-ops, clubs, businesses and even lawyers who have advocated for looser dope regulations say they’ve been inundated with requests for information and certifications that permit people to use marijuana for medical purposes.

“I have been flooded with calls,” reported Seattle attorney Douglas Hiatt, a long-time marijuana advocate. “It’s ‘Where can I find a doctor [to prescribe it]? How can I start a co-op?’ You wouldn’t believe it.”

via Medical Marijuana Requests Climb Sky High | CommonDreams.org.

Health Insurance Companies Ruining Your Sex Life?

YouTube – Health Insurance Companies Ruining Your Sex Life?.

How to Punish Hannity for Coup Provocation? Nail Him to a Swastika?

How to Punish Hannity for Coup Provocation? Nail Him to a Swastika?

Hannity’s Treason Poll

Crypto-nazi hatecaster Sean Hannity’s show has always been a rallying venue for the chickenhawk, militiaman, neonazi and neoconferederate crowds, but as the reaction to the savage looting of America grew and the prospects of an Obama Administration seemed more likely, Hannity grew ever more enraged and desperate, and finally, extreme to the point of advocating extra-political confrontation with “the extreme left” — basically anyone to the left of Julius Streicher.

Hannity had already been exposed as a neonazi sympathizer by The Nation a few years back, which reviewed his relationship with neonazi psychopath Hal Turner, host of his own webcast radio show, whom Hannity often had on to bark racist and crypto-genocidal madness. Still, one assumes, Hannity was just promoting a hypermilitarized fascist political philosophy that he hoped would win fairly at election, or simply finish overwhelming what was left of the GOP and transform America into the theocratic, fascist dystopia the founding fathers clearly had in mind.

Then fucktard Hannity hosted a poll on his website last week, asking his readers which revolution they endorsed: a military coup, armed rebellion, or war for secession. Every choice in the reader poll is clearly a threat to the current, duly and legally elected administration.

via Stinque » How to Punish Hannity for Coup Provocation? Nail Him to a Swastika?.

Scott Horton and Thom Hartmann talk about the Spanish court indictment of “The Bush 6.”

YouTube – Scott Horton and Thom Hartmann talk about the Spanish court indictment of “The Bush 6.”.

Reaganomics vs. Obamanomics Thom mixes it up with Reagan biographer Craig Shirley

YouTube – Reaganomics vs. Obamanomics Thom mixes it up with Reagan biographer Craig Shirley.

Thom Hartmann and Walid Shoebat (former avowed terrorist) shake it up about piracy and terrorism.

YouTube – Thom Hartmann and Walid Shoebat (former avowed terrorist) shake it up about piracy and terrorism..

As Fox Host Denies Tea Parties Are ‘A Right-Wing Conspiracy,’ Fox Chyron Touts AmericanSolutions.Com

As Fox Host Denies Tea Parties Are ‘A Right-Wing Conspiracy,’ Fox Chyron Touts AmericanSolutions.Com

As part of the network’s day-long promotion of the anti-Obama tea parties, Fox News’ Gretchen Carlson interviewed three tea party organizers on Fox and Friends this morning. In an attempt to push back against criticism that corporate lobbyists were helping to orchestrate the so-called grassroots movement, Carlson asked Kellen Guida, the organizer of the New York City tea party, to answer the claim that the protests are “a right-wing conspiracy. “All you can do is laugh to that,” replied Guida. Watch it:

via Think Progress » As Fox Host Denies Tea Parties Are ‘A Right-Wing Conspiracy,’ Fox Chyron Touts AmericanSolutions.Com.

IRS Workers Stealing Your Cash! Look Who’s Cashing in Your Check to the Government

IRS Workers Stealing Your Cash! Look Who’s Cashing in Your Check to the Government

ABC News Uncovers History of Contract Workers, IRS Employees Stealing Taxpayer Checks and Cash

Think your income tax check is safe when you send it off to the IRS? Think again. An ABC News investigation has uncovered case after case of checks being stolen, manipulated and cashed by contract employees responsible for processing them, resulting in delayed payments and heavily disrupted lives.

“It was beyond my wildest imagination that this theft would be an inside scam,” Brad Miller of Garland, TX told ABC News.

Last year, Miller sent a cashier’s check for more than $20,000 to the IRS, where it ended up in the hands of a Bank of America employee in Dallas who embezzled $485,539.76 in taxpayer remittance checks.

Miller said the theft left him out of a $400 fee he had to pay to stop payment on the check, not to mention the violation he felt knowing someone had accessed his money and personal information.

“I never before gave it a second thought that my check made out to the IRS would end up in the wrong hands,” Miller said.

via IRS Workers Stealing Your Cash! Look Who’s Cashing in Your Check to the Government – ABC News.

Ill Patients Forced to Pay for Cancer Pills

As Pills Treat Cancer, Insurance Lags Behind

Chuck Stauffer’s insurance covered the surgery to remove his brain tumor. It covered his brain scans. And it would have paid fully for tens of thousands of dollars of intravenous chemotherapy at a doctor’s office or hospital.

But his insurance covered hardly any of the cost of the cancer pills the doctor prescribed for him to take at home. Mr. Stauffer, a 62-year-old Oregon farmer, had to pay $5,500 for the first 42-day supply of the drug, Temodar, and $1,700 a month after that.

“Because it was a pill,” he said, “I had to pay — not the insurance.”

Pills and capsules are the new wave in cancer treatment, expected to account for 25 percent of all cancer medicines in a few years, up from less than 10 percent now.

The oral drugs can free patients from frequent trips to a clinic to be hooked to an intravenous line for hours. Fewer visits might save the health system money as well as time. And the pills are a step toward making cancer a manageable chronic condition, like diabetes.

But for many patients, exchanging an I.V. bag for a pill is a lopsided trade because the economics and practice of cancer medicine have not caught up with the convenience of oral drugs.

via Ill Patients Forced to Pay for Cancer Pills – NYTimes.com.

Tax Shell Game: The Taxpayer Cost of Offshore Corporate Havens

Tax Shell Game: The Taxpayer Cost of Offshore Corporate Havens

Executive Summary

Many of the largest corporations in our country hide profits made in the United States in offshore shell companies and sham headquarters in order to avoid paying billions in federal taxes. The result is massive losses in revenue for the U.S. Treasury – which ultimately must be made up by taxpayers.

The debt of a few is transferred to many – and to future generations. The U.S. Senate confirmed in the recently-passed fiscal year 2010 budget resolution that the use of offshore tax havens by large corporations “means that honest taxpayers face a higher burden.”

Key Findings

• The cost to taxpayers due to the use of offshore tax havens is as high as $100 billion per year – $1 trillion over 10 years. U.S.-based individuals and corporations who pay taxes on their revenues must shoulder this burden for those who do not.

• Taxpayers must shoulder the burden – U.S. PIRG Education Fund calculated each state’s taxpayer contribution proportional to their yearly federal contribution to make up for the $100 billion lost (See Figure 1).

• Our allies in other nations are also calling for decisive action to reign in these abusive tax havens. The Group of 20 (G-20), which provides a forum for world financial leaders to promote global economic stability, recently issued a communique providing for sanctions against tax haven countries.

via Tax Shell Game: The Taxpayer Cost of Offshore Corporate Havens – U.S. PIRG.

Obama vows to reform monstrous tax code

Obama vows to reform “monstrous” tax code

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama promised Americans his administration would rewrite the “monstrous” U.S. tax code as millions faced an annual deadline on Wednesday for filing federal income tax returns.

Obama used Tax Day, a source of dread and frustration due to the welter of confusing paperwork required, to underscore his efforts to cut taxes for many Americans in the midst of the worst economic crisis in decades.

“We know that tax relief must be joined with fiscal discipline,” Obama told reporters as he met several families at the White House.

He also reiterated a pledge to “stop giving tax breaks to companies that stash profits or ship jobs overseas so that we can invest in job creation at home.”

Obama is pushing a record $3.5 trillion federal budget plan that Republicans and some Democrats say is loaded with too much spending. He defends it as vital to boosting the recession-battered economy.

via Obama vows to reform monstrous tax code | Politics | Reuters.

Israel will not cooperate with U.N. Gaza inquiry

Israel will not cooperate with U.N. Gaza inquiry

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel does not plan to cooperate with a U.N. agency’s investigation into alleged war crimes by Israeli troops and Hamas militants during fighting in Gaza, an Israeli government official said Wednesday.

Israeli forces launched a 22-day offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in late December with the stated goal of stopping cross-border rockets fired by Palestinian militants.

According to a Palestinian rights group, 1,417 Palestinians, including 926 civilians, were killed in the fighting. Israel disputes those figures.

The United Nations Human Rights Council appointed former U.N. war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone this month to head the investigation into allegations of human rights violations by both sides during the December 27 to January 18 conflict.

via Israel will not cooperate with U.N. Gaza inquiry | International | Reuters.

The Real Boston Tea Party was an Anti-Corporate Revolt

The Real Boston Tea Party was an Anti-Corporate Revolt

by Thom Hartmann

CNBC Correspondent Rick Santelli called for a “Chicago Tea Party” on Feb 19th in protesting President Obama’s plan to help homeowners in trouble. Santelli’s call was answered by the right-wing group FreedomWorks, which funds campaigns promoting big business interests, and is the opposite of what the real Boston Tea Party was. FreedomWorks was funded in 2004 by Dick Armey (former Republican House Majority leader & lobbyist); consolidated Citizens for a Sound Economy, funded by the Koch family; and Empower America, a lobbying firm, that had fought against healthcare and minimum-wage efforts while hailing deregulation.

Anti-tax “tea party” organizers are delivering one million tea bags to a Washington, D.C., park Wednesday morning – to promote protests across the country by people they say are fed up with high taxes and excess spending.

The real Boston Tea Party was a protest against huge corporate tax cuts for the British East India Company, the largest trans-national corporation then in existence. This corporate tax cut threatened to decimate small Colonial businesses by helping the BEIC pull a Wal-Mart against small entrepreneurial tea shops, and individuals began a revolt that kicked-off a series of events that ended in the creation of The United States of America.

They covered their faces, massed in the streets, and destroyed the property of a giant global corporation. Declaring an end to global trade run by the East India Company that was destroying local economies, this small, masked minority started a revolution with an act of rebellion later called the Boston Tea Party.

On a cold November day in 1773, activists gathered in a coastal town. The corporation had gone too far, and the two thousand people who’d jammed into the meeting hall were torn as to what to do about it. Unemployment was exploding and the economic crisis was deepening; corporate crime, governmental corruption spawned by corporate cash, and an ethos of greed were blamed. “Why do we wait?” demanded one at the meeting, a fisherman named George Hewes. “The more we delay, the more strength is acquired” by the company and its puppets in the government. “Now is the time to prove our courage,” he said. Soon, the moment came when the crowd decided for direct action and rushed into the streets.

via The Real Boston Tea Party was an Anti-Corporate Revolt | CommonDreams.org.

McClatchy

McClatchy.

McClatchy

McClatchy.

Tea Bag This: Historic Working Families Tax Cuts Take Effect TODAY

Tea Bag This: Historic Working Families Tax Cuts Take Effect

The size and scope of new tax breaks for working families implemented as part of President Obama’s economic stimulus package are historic. According to data released by the White House today, 95 percent of working families will see a reduction in their tax by $400 for individuals and $800 for households beginning this year.

Many millions more Americans will see additional credits and breaks for everything from purchasing new cars and homes, to child care and college tuition expenses, and for losses and depreciation for small businesses hurting during this recession.

For 2009, a typical family with three children and an annual income of $30,000 would keep as much as $2,172 as part of the president’s tax cut plan. In addition to keeping the $800 for the working families tax cut, known as the Making Work Pay Credit, this family could benefit from new credits for child care expense and a rise in the Earned Income Tax Credit.

A married couple earning a combined $90,000 with one child in college, would save about $1,500 in 2009 through the Making Work Pay Credit and new credits for college tuition expense, according to White House budget office estimates.

via Political Affairs Magazine – Tea Bag This: Historic Working Families Tax Cuts Take Effect.

Limbaugh Expresses Sympathy for Somali Pirates

OPS: Face it. The conservative elite hates America and everything it has ever stood for.

Limbaugh Expresses Sympathy for Somali Pirates

GOP party boss Rush Limbaugh is no longer content merely to wish that Pres. Obama, and thus the U.S. government, will fail. Now he’s also expressing sympathy for enemies of the country — specifically the hijackers who threatened the lives of American merchant marines on the Maersk Alabama last week:

There you have it, and three teenagers shot on the high seas at the order of President Obama.

They were kids. The story is out, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but apparently the hijackers, these kids, the merchant marine organizers, Muslim kids, were upset, they wanted to just give the captain back and head home because they were running out of food, they were running out of fuel, they were surrounded by all these U.S. Navy ships, big ships, and they just wanted out of there. That’s the story, but then when one of them put a gun to the back of the captain, Mr. Phillips, then bam, bam, bam. There you have it, and three teenagers shot on the high seas at the order of President Obama.

And then Limbaugh made this (typically) factually challenged assertion:

If only President Obama had known that the three Somali community organizers were actually young black Muslim teenagers, I’m sure he wouldn’t have given the order to shoot. That’s the correct way to look at it. If only Obama had known.

via Pensito Review » Limbaugh Expresses Sympathy for Somali Pirates.

Retiree pensions are at risk

Retiree pensions are at risk

Fed insurer fears auto failures

Washington — General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC retirees and employees could lose $23 billion in pension benefits if the companies terminate their retirement plans in bankruptcy, the government’s pension insurance agency warned Tuesday.

Neither GM nor Chrysler plans to file for bankruptcy, but both are taking steps to prepare in case they are forced to do so in the coming weeks. While neither has said it plans to terminate its pension program, struggling steel companies and airlines have used bankruptcy to get out from under large pension obligations and turn them over to the government.

GM and Chrysler combined provide pension benefits to about 630,000 retirees and dependents, and cover another 300,000 who haven’t begun drawing benefits.

via Retiree pensions are at risk | detnews.com | The Detroit News.

LA school board votes to lay off 5,400 employees

LA school board votes to lay off 5,400 employees

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Board of Education has voted to lay off as many as 5,400 teachers and support personnel for the upcoming school year.

The vote came Tuesday as employees protested raucously outside the meeting. The board had voted hours earlier to save the jobs of 1,996 elementary school teachers using federal stimulus funds.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest school system, faces a $596 million budget shortfall for the 2009-10 school year.

The final number of layoffs remains to be determined because the exact amount of state and federal funds coming to the district remains unclear.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

via The Associated Press: LA school board votes to lay off 5,400 employees.

Libertarians say Republicans have hijacked tea party movement

Libertarians say Republicans have hijacked tea party movement

As conservatives coalesce in nationwide protests against rising taxes, government spending and what they call the “bailout mentality” of President Barack Obama’s Administration, the ship appears to have sprung a leak.

via The Raw Story | Libertarians say Republicans have hijacked tea party movement.

Judge allows suit against Cheney’s Secret Service detail to proceed

Judge allows suit against Cheney’s Secret Service detail to proceed

A man who was arrested for allegedly harassing former Vice President Dick Cheney will see his lawsuit against the Secret Service proceed, a U.S. District Court Judge ruled today.

The Denver Post has more:

Steven Howards sued the four agents claiming they violated his civil rights after he was arrested for allegedly harassing Cheney in June 2006.

Howards said he simply walked up to Cheney in the Beaver Creek shopping mall, touched him and said his policy in Iraq was “disgusting.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Eagle County District Attorney declined to pursue a criminal case against Howards.

The Secret Service agents gave conflicting accounts of the incident in depositions taken by attorneys in the civil case.

via The Raw Story » Judge allows suit against Cheney’s Secret Service detail to proceed.

Scarborough: Obama Is ‘More Focused On Targeting Veterans’ Than Fighting Al Qaeda

Scarborough: Obama Is ‘More Focused On Targeting Veterans’ Than Fighting Al Qaeda

Yesterday, a copy of a Department of Homeland Security report was leaked, detailing the increasing radicaliziation of “rightwing extremists.” One portion of the report warned that “rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat.”

This morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” host Joe Scarborough expressed fury at the report’s mention of veterans. Ignoring the report’s conclusion that right-wing groups would try to recruit veterans, Scarborough declared that the Obama administration was “targeting veterans” and waging a “war on veterans”:

via Think Progress » Scarborough: Obama Is ‘More Focused On Targeting Veterans’ Than Fighting Al Qaeda.

Spokesman says Coleman will appeal ruling, probably next week

Spokesman says Coleman will appeal ruling, probably next week

Ben Ginsberg said he’s confident the state Supreme Court will take seriously the campaign’s argument that many Minnesotans were wrongly denied their votes.

Norm Coleman will appeal the court decision awarding the U.S. Senate election to Al Franken, Coleman’s chief legal spokesman said today.

Ben Ginsberg said the appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court probably will be filed next week, to give the Coleman campaign’s lawyers a chance to fully digest the 68-page opinion that the three-judge panel handed down late Monday afternoon.

Coleman has 10 days to file the appeal.

The judges dismissed Coleman’s argument that systemic errors in the election process invalidated Franken’s razor-thin lead and required the counting of some 4,400 additional absentee ballots that had been rejected.

Most of those votes, Ginsberg said today, came from precincts that Coleman won and therefore could overturn Franken’s 312-vote margin.

via Spokesman says Coleman will appeal ruling, probably next week.

On April 15th, the Real Crime is the Radical Redistribution of Our National Wealth to the Bloated Rich: It’s a Mugging

On April 15th, the Real Crime is the Radical Redistribution of Our National Wealth to the Bloated Rich: It’s a Mugging

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

We’re in America’s “Second Gilded Age.” …

Tax responsibilities have shifted off of large wealth holders and onto wage earners, off corporations and onto individuals, off the progressive federal tax system and onto state and local tax systems, which tend to be more regressive. Tax cuts for the rich have shrunk federal services — and shifted responsibilities to states for health, anti-poverty, transportation and more. That’s the shaft part.

– Chuck Collins, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good.

* * *

It’s April 15th and the Mad Hatters of the Teabagging Party are off to protest that the extreme income redistribution over the last 30 years continue unabated so that the super-rich become even richer as America’s middle class sinks into oblivion. There’s been a class war going on since Reagan was elected, and it’s been a war on the working class as the average wage earner got mugged by the largest shift of wealth to the rich in American history.

What better day than April 15th to devote our BuzzFlash interview to a conversation with Chuck Collins, who heads the “Institute for Policy Studies and director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good.” We strongly recommend you read it in full. It’s chock full of information that reveals the income redistibution scam that has been pulled off in full view of the American public, fattening the wallets of the already financially engorged fat cats.

via On April 15th, the Real Crime is the Radical Redistribution of Our National Wealth to the Bloated Rich: It’s a Mugging | BuzzFlash.org.

New Zealand expected to exceed Kyoto target

New Zealand expected to exceed Kyoto target

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand will better its target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol because of drought and reassessment of its forests, a government report said on Wednesday.

The country was now expected to produce around 9.6 million tons less of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases than allowed in the protocol’s first commitment period of 2008-2012.

Under the Protocol, the U.N.’s main weapon in the fight against climate change, New Zealand is meant to show no increase from 1990 levels between 2008-2012.

That compared with an estimate last year that New Zealand would have a greenhouse gas deficit of around 21.7 million tons.

via New Zealand expected to exceed Kyoto target | Environment | Reuters.

Coral Transplant Surgery Prescribed for Japan – NYTimes.com

Coral Transplant Surgery Prescribed for Japan

SEKISEI LAGOON, Japan — Beneath the waves of this sapphire-blue corner of the East China Sea, a team of divers was busily at work.

Hovering along the steep, bony face of a dying coral reef, some divers bored holes into the hard surface with compressed-air drills that released plumes of glittering bubbles. Others followed, gently inserting small ceramic discs into the fresh openings.

Each disc carried a tiny sliver of hope for the reef, in the shape of fingertip-size sprigs of brightly colored, fledgling coral.

This undersea work site may look like a scene from a Jules Verne novel, but it is part of a government-led effort to save Japan’s largest coral reef, near the southern end of the Okinawa chain of islands. True to form in Japan, the project involves new technology, painstaking attention to detail and a generous dose of taxpayer money.

via Sekisei Lagoon Journal – Coral Transplant Surgery Prescribed for Japan – NYTimes.com.

Asking Questions of Larry Summers

Asking Questions of Larry Summers

Summers Obfuscates On Question About Bank Stress Tests

Larry Summers just gave an interview to CNBC’s Maria
Bartiromo in which neither side was particularly impressive. Bartiromo managed to go the entire interview without asking Summers about about the fact that he seems to be bought and paid for by Wall Street. And Summers proved himself incapable of even answering Bartiromo’s softballs:

BARTIROMO: And it leads me–it leads me to sort of a more thoughtful, broader idea here, and it feels like there’s a bit of a competition going. On the one hand, the government is saying to the banks, `Look, you need to lend more,’ lend, lend, lend, get the credit moving again,’ since credit has been stripped in this economy, literally, five quarters. On the other hand, the government is saying, `We’re performing stress tests and you need to get your capital levels at an appropriate level.’ So why would a bank lend when they know that they’ve got to get their credit level–they’ve got to get their capital levels up?

Mr. SUMMERS: Well, I think the focus of the stress test is going to be on levels of capital rather than capital ratios. And so the focus is going to be on making sure that institutions raise capital or take other kinds of steps to assure that they have capital that enables them to support their existing loans and puts them in a position–puts them in a position to expand. And that’s really where focus–really where the focus is going to be. Nobody’s looking to use the stress test as a vehicle for forcing institutions to deleverage and reduce their lending activity. Rather, the action’s going to be on the capital side, and that’s where you’re supporting a stronger economy and more lending that enables more growth.

via Asking Questions of Larry Summers – Finance Blog – Felix Salmon – Market Movers – Portfolio.com.

Yale Economists Discuss The Financial Crisis (VIDEO)

Yale Economists Discuss The Financial Crisis (VIDEO)

In front of an audience of Yale alumni, university president Richard Levin hosted a fascinating discussion Tuesday on the financial crisis with John Geanakoplos (James Tobin Professor of Economics) and Robert Shiller (Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics).

All three professors challenged the Obama administration’s approach to fixing the crisis, with Geanakoplos and Levin laying out the most withering critiques.

According to Geanakopolos, the premise behind Treasury Secretary’s Tim Geithner’s plan is fundamentally wrong. Alluding to the famous “pound of flesh” loan in Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice,” the fast-thinking economist emphasized that the solution to the foreclosure crisis is not to reduce mortgage interest rates but to write down the principal. If a homeowner’s principal is reduced, “he’s going to find a way to pay… It’s common sense to me and it’s frustrating to me that they’re not doing it.”……

via Yale Economists Discuss The Financial Crisis (VIDEO).

GOP Senator Encourages Run On Banks

BURR TALKS UP BANK RUNS…. I’d hoped someone who’s been helping write federal law for more than 14 years would know better than to say things like this in public. (via Christopher Orr)

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) says when the financial crisis began he encouraged his wife to withdraw all the cash she possibly could from their local bank.

During a speech on the economy [Monday] night, Burr related his immediate reaction the week the crisis began.

“On Friday night, I called my wife and I said, ‘Brooke, I am not coming home this weekend. I will call you on Monday. Tonight, I want you to go to the ATM machine, and I want you to draw out everything it will let you take,” Burr said, according to the Hendersonville Times-News. “And I want you to tomorrow, and I want you to go Sunday.’ I was convinced on Friday night that if you put a plastic card in an ATM machine the last thing you were going to get was cash.”

Now, maybe Burr was trying to be funny, but his comments don’t make any sense. Since the advent of FDIC, Burr’s family money was safe, right where it was. Calling home in a panic, and withdrawing the maximum, only serves to make a bad situation worse.

But even worse is hearing Burr talk like this publicly to voters who may be inclined to think he knows what he’s talking about. The senator wasn’t just describing a bank run, he was suggesting bank runs might be a good idea in the midst of a crisis. As Matt Yglesias explained, “Burr’s effort to whip people into a panic could lead to runs and bank failures. That, in turn, will lead to people losing jobs. People could even lose their business through no fault of their own other than having customers who chose to take the words of a United States Senator seriously. I’m having a hard to imagining what Burr could have been thinking.”

via The Washington Monthly.

Tax Day: Obama Speaking On Changes To Code

Tax Day: Obama Speaking On Changes To Code

via Tax Day: Obama Speaking On Changes To Code.

Offshore Tax Havens: A State-By-State Breakdown Of The Cost To Taxpayers

Offshore Tax Havens: A State-By-State Breakdown Of The Cost To Taxpayers

A Senate report estimated in 2008 that the United States loses up to $100 billion a year in tax revenue to offshore tax havens (PDF). In a report released Wednesday, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group offers a state-by-state breakdown of the cost to taxpayers of tax revenue lost to “shell companies and sham headquarters” in places like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.

The practice soaks dutiful taxpayers in every state for hundreds of millions of dollars, according to U.S. PIRG. The citizens of New York and Texas shoulder over $8 billion a year, and the good people of California are on the hook for an extra $11 billion.

Click here for U.S. PIRG’s table with the state-by-state breakdown of the burden shifted to taxpayers.

U.S. PIRG came up with the state numbers by dividing the $100 billion figure by the percentage of total federal revenue contributed by each state. The nonprofit released its report on tax day to drive home a message:

via Offshore Tax Havens: A State-By-State Breakdown Of The Cost To Taxpayers.

Study says most corporations pay no U.S. income taxes

Study says most corporations pay no U.S. income taxes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Most U.S. and foreign corporations doing business in the United States avoid paying any federal income taxes, despite trillions of dollars worth of sales, a government study released on Tuesday said.

The Government Accountability Office said 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005.

More than half of foreign companies and about 42 percent of U.S. companies paid no U.S. income taxes for two or more years in that period, the report said.

During that time corporate sales in the United States totaled $2.5 trillion, according to Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, who requested the GAO study.

The report did not name any companies. The GAO said corporations escaped paying federal income taxes for a variety of reasons including operating losses, tax credits and an ability to use transactions within the company to shift income to low tax countries.

With the U.S. budget deficit this year running close to the record $413 billion that was set in 2004 and projected to hit a record $486 billion next year, lawmakers are looking to plug holes in the U.S. tax code and generate more revenues.

via Study says most corporations pay no U.S. income taxes | U.S. | Reuters.

Tea Bag Parties Show the Scary Side of the US

YouTube – Tea Bag Parties Show the Scary Side of the US.

Why this Crisis May be Worse than the Great Depression

Why this Crisis May be Worse than the Great Depression

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

About one percent of the nation owning more than about 90 percent of the rest of us combined not only foresaw the impending crash but planned to benefit from it. GOP types have traditionally gotten rich by playing ‘last man out loses’! A race to be first to ‘get out’ has triggered many a panic creating bargains to be picked up, fortunes to be made on the inevitable upside. The big difference now is that –this time –there may not be an upside.

The sheer size of this crisis is worrisome. During the Great Depression, the US still had viable industries that had not yet been exported to China by way of the Bushes and Wal-Mart. The US manufactured automobiles, refrigerators, radios and, later, televisions sets. The steel industry created Pittsburgh. Autos made Detroit. America’s work and labor were the sources of its wealth. The right wing exploitation and export of that wealth is the source of our current poverty, the financial collapse and our impending slide into third world status. An increasingly tiny elite is the cancer upon the body politic and economic.

The US oligarchy demonstrates why it so foolhardy to transfer so much wealth to so few so quickly. These ‘few’ foresaw the crisis and triggered it by bailing out early. It is left to the rest of us to pick up the tab.

Something like 50 trillion dollars in derivative debt is far bigger than even the stock market. Derivatives are collateralized debt obligations, leading to the erroneous conclusion that ‘debt is money’. The current crisis is proof that it is not. Moreover, anyone who has ever taken a course in accounting knows the accounting equation: net worth = assets – liabilities. That the money changers swapped these instruments did not change the accounting equation. Money owed you is not money in the bank –a lesson that is, of late, very expensive.

Many have said that ‘we are doomed’! Our borrowing will be financed by our own savings. Already, Beijing is poised to become the financial capital of the world. We can thank Wal-Mart and GOP policies for that outcome. In previous articles, I have traced the rise of the Axis of Wal-Mart/China to the faustian bargain Bush Sr cut with Chinese poohbahs as he paved the way for Nixon’s infamous visit to the Forbidden city back in 1973. The quick rule of thumb: whenever the US suffers the effects of betrayal, you can be sure to find a GOPPER in hiding whenever the shit hits the fan.

It was not so long ago that a Democratic president had left to his incompetent GOP successor a whopping budget surplus, a growing economy, the lowest of unemployment in decades, and –for Republicans –the most worrisome trend of all: the rich were no longer getting richer as they had done during the Reagan/Bush years. I can think of only one group of people who are most miserable when times are good! REPUBLICANS!

via The Existentialist Cowboy: Why this Crisis May be Worse than the Great Depression.

Olbermann: Fox News has been “supporting” and “sponsoring” the tea partys

Olbermann discusses how Fox News has been “supporting” and “sponsoring” the tea party protests

Culture of Conservative Paranoia Running Rampant on Fox News

Culture of Conservative Paranoia Running Rampant on Fox News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Culture of Conservative Paranoia Running Rampant on Fox News

Media Matters issues open letter to Chris Wallace calling on him to address Fox News’ recent extremist rhetoric and political activism

Washington, D.C. — Today, Media Matters for America President Eric Burns issued an open letter to Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace — who has repeatedly characterized Fox News as “fair and balanced” — asking him to rebuke his colleagues for their increasingly extremist rhetoric and promotion of anti-Obama “tea parties.” These actions have gone way over the line separating news and commentary from political activism and demagoguery.

Since his January debut on the network, Glenn Beck has emerged as a prominent purveyor of misinformation and baseless attacks on President Obama and his administration’s policies. Beck has gone as far as to act out a scene in which President Obama poured gasoline onto the “average American” and threatened to set him on fire (video here: http://mediamatters.org/countyfair/200904090036). Additionally, Fox News has aggressively promoted tea party protests, while often characterizing them as a response to President Obama’s fiscal policies. The network has aired graphics branding the protests as “FNC Tax Day Tea Parties” and has repeatedly encouraged its viewers to participate.

via Media Matters – Culture of Conservative Paranoia Running Rampant on Fox News.

Cartoons

Cartoons.

Smart Grid, Smart Broadband, Smart Infrastructure

Smart Grid, Smart Broadband, Smart Infrastructure

Melding Federal Stimulus Programs to Ensure More Bang for the Buck

With a bit of imagination and coordination among multiple federal programs and agencies, the economic stimulus funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 could be used far more efficiently to achieve a diverse set of closely related goals. One section of the act provides billions of federal dollars to fund a “smart grid” for electricity that connects a far more flexible and efficient grid for long-distance transmission to regional feeder lines and local hubs, and then to that “last mile” to residences and businesses. A different part of the act provides billions in funding to upgrade broadband networks for unserved and underserved areas around the country. The broadband network has the same essential structure as the electricity network—long-distance transmission or the “Internet backbone,” the feeder lines to local hubs or the “middle mile,” and the “last mile” to fixed and wireless users.

Both the smart-grid and broadband efforts involve substantial planning, spending on new wires, and the creation of major new digital infrastructure to connect homes in vastly expanded networks of information exchange. So here’s a simple and powerful idea—construction of the electricity grid and the broadband network should go hand in hand. And here is an even more powerful idea—we should combine these efforts with other parts of the Recovery Act, such as health care information technology, education reform, weatherization initiatives, and future policy initiatives to create a nationwide smart infrastructure.

via Smart Grid, Smart Broadband, Smart Infrastructure.

Smart Grid Plugs in for Boulder

OPS:  ‘Smart Grid’ is an oxymoron (which now comes in convenient 5 gallon buckets).  The ‘Grid’ is 19th Century technology. It is an antiquated dinosaur and an expensive inefficient danger to National Security. Power sources must implemented that are decentralized and local.

Imagine a future when you can use the Internet to program when

your

appliances run to take advantage of lower electric rates during off-peak hours—or to run when your utility has energy available that is produced by wind or solar. A future when your electric company can remotely detect that a transformer is close to failing and prevent a blackout from occurring. A future when plug-in electric cars are charged from home solar arrays and can send power on demand to the grid, collectively acting as a small, clean power plant.

That future is unfolding right now in Boulder, CO, as Xcel Energy—the state’s largest utility that also operates in seven other states—continues to build out what it calls the nation’s first SmartGridCity.

And the dream of a smart electric grid—a modern, digital age electric power distribution system that allows sophisticated two-way communication between consumers and utilities and among various parts of utilities’ infrastructure—is getting lots of attention from both government and industry.

The economic stimulus package signed into law by President Barack Obama in February includes about $4.5 billion for smart-grid technology, and utilities, technology companies, and cities are scrambling to get a piece of that pie. “Competition will be keen,” reports Bloomberg, noting the recent announcement of the smart grid Pecan Street Project in Austin, TX, which aims to—among other things—produce a power plant’s worth of energy within the city limits using renewable resources.

via Smart Grid Plugs in for Boulder.

North Korea expels nuclear inspectors

North Korea expels nuclear inspectors

North Korea on Tuesday ordered international nuclear inspectors to leave the country as it vowed to restart its nuclear reactor in response to United Nations condemnation of its long-range missile launch.

The Stalinist state threatened to reactivate its nuclear plant at Yongbyon and start reprocessing fuel rods, which would increase its stockpile of weapons-grade plutonium. It also declared that it would not return to the six-party talks aimed at eliminating nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula

via FT.com / Asia-Pacific – North Korea expels nuclear inspectors.

Fiat may walk away from Chrysler tie-up

OPS:  It’s all about busting the Unions and  Pensions

Fiat may walk away from Chrysler tie-up

Marchionne puts blame on Canadian union

Sergio Marchionne, Fiat’s chief executive, said he was “prepared to walk” from a proposed alliance with Chrysler if the failing US carmaker did not secure cost-cutting concessions from its unions.

Mr Marchionne gave the partnership, Chrysler’s best chance of avoiding a bankruptcy filing in coming weeks, only a 50:50 chance of being formed.

“Absolutely we are prepared to walk. There is no doubt in my mind,” Mr Marchionne said in an interview with the Toronto Globe and Mail. “We cannot commit to this organisation unless we see light at the end of the tunnel.” Fiat on Wednesday confirmed the comments from the interview.

Mr Marchionne singled out the Canadian Auto Workers’ union for criticism, saying that it “may have taken more rigid positions” in talks on bringing down Chrysler’s labour costs to the level of its Japanese rivals.

Fiat, which in January agreed in principle to share technology and plants with Chrysler, holds all the cards controlling the fate of the carmaker after the US government ordered it in late March to secure an alliance with another carmaker or face bankruptcy.

via FT.com / Companies / Automobiles – Fiat may walk away from Chrysler tie-up.

UBS to cut 11% of global workforce

UBS to cut 11% of global workforce

Bank warns of heavy loss in first quarter

UBS on Wednesday confirmed investors’ worst fears with further heavy losses in the first quarter and a cull of more than 11 per cent of the Swiss banking group’s global workforce.

The steps, announced to shareholders at UBS’s annual meeting in Zurich, mark the first steps by Oswald Grübel to put his stamp on the bank since being appointed chief executive in February.

Mr Grübel, who held the same post at arch rival Credit Suisse until two years ago, is a ruthless cost cutter who was widely expected to review UBS’s operations immediately upon taking office. Although further layoffs had been expected, Wednesday’s announcement of 8,700 cuts cuts went beyond most forecasts.

UBS shares opened 8.7 per cent lower at SFr12.12 after the announcement.

The bank, which has written down about $48bn on its toxic assets since the start of the credit crisis, said it envisaged an almost SFr2bn ($1.7bn) loss for the first quarter. That figure was based on new writedowns of about SFr3.9bn on remaining illiquid risks positions and on credit losses. The figure also covered final valuation adjustments on the almost SFr39bn package of toxic securities transferred in December to a special fund set up with the Swiss National Bank.

via FT.com / Companies / Banks – UBS to cut 11% of global workforce.

The ultimate reaping of what one sows: right-wing edition

The ultimate reaping of what one sows: right-wing edition - By Glenn Greenwald

Right-wing polemicists today are shrieking in self-pitying protest over a new report from the Department of Homeland Security sent to local police forces which warns of growing “right-wing extremist activity.” The report (.pdf) identifies attributes of these right-wing extremists, warning that a growing domestic threat of violence and terrorism “may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration” and “groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.”

Conservatives have responded to this disclosure as though they’re on the train to FEMA camps. The Right’s leading political philosopher and intellectual historian, Jonah Goldberg, invokes fellow right-wing giant Ronald Reagan and says: “Here we go Again,” protesting that “this seems so nakedly ideological.” Michelle Malkin, who spent the last eight years cheering on every domestic surveillance and police state program she could find, announces that it’s “Confirmed: The Obama DHS hit job on conservatives is real!” Lead-War-on-Terror-cheerleader Glenn Reynolds warns that DHS — as a result of this report (but not, apparently, anything that happened over the last eight years) — now considers the Constitution to be a “subversive manifesto.” Super Tough Guy Civilization-Warrior Mark Steyn has already concocted an elaborate, detailed martyr fantasy in which his house is surrounded by Obama-dispatched, bomb-wielding federal agents. Malkin’s Hot Air stomps its feet about all “the smears listed in the new DHS warning about ‘right-wing extremism.’”

via The ultimate reaping of what one sows: right-wing edition – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

Surgeons Find Tree Growing Inside Man’s Lung – Incredible Health

Surgeons Find Tree Growing Inside Man’s Lung

Surgeons in Russia thought they were going to remove a cancerous tumor from a 28-year-old patient – but instead they found a 5-centimeter tree growing inside his lung.

It happened in Russia’s Urals region while doctors were operating on Artyom Sidorkin, the Russian newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda Daily reported Monday.

Doctors suspected Sidorkin had cancer after he complained of extreme pain in his chest and had been coughing up blood.

“I blinked three times and thought I was seeing things,” Surgeon Vladimir Kamashev told the newspaper.

Doctors believe Sidorkin somehow inhaled a seed, which later sprouted inside his lung.

The spruce, which was touching the man’s capillaries and causing severe pain, was removed.

via FOXNews.com – Surgeons Find Tree Growing Inside Man’s Lung – Incredible Health.

Woman to police: ‘There’s a dog taped to the fridge’

Woman to police: ‘There’s a dog taped to the fridge’

Boulder couple arrested in dispute-driven animal cruelty case

BOULDER, Colo. — Police found an 8-month-old puppy — its feet, snout and tail bound in clear packing tape, a plastic bag and elastic hair ties — stuck to the side of a refrigerator in a Boulder home Tuesday morning, the apparent victim of a domestic dispute between its owner and his girlfriend.

Abby Toll, 20, was arrested on suspicion of felony animal cruelty after telling police she taped the puppy, a shiba inu named Rex, to the fridge because she was angry at her boyfriend for not getting rid of his pet after it had bitten her.

“There’s a dog taped to the fridge,” she reportedly told an officer who responded to a call about a domestic incident at the apartment in the 2900 block of East Aurora Avenue around 5 a.m. Tuesday. “I know this looks bad. We were going to get rid of him anyway. We usually don’t do this.”

The dog, which police said in a report appeared to be in severe pain after being released from its “tomb of tape,” was placed with the Humane Society of Boulder Valley for safekeeping.

via Woman to police: ‘There’s a dog taped to the fridge’ : County News : ColoradoDaily.com Boulder, CO.

Obama Team Tells Jewish Leaders: UN Durban Text Crosses “Red Line”

Obama Team Tells Jewish Leaders: UN Durban Text Crosses “Red Line”

In a private conference call with Jewish leaders on Tuesday, the Obama White House reaffirmed that it has not decided to formally reengage negotiations over the charter of the United Nations’ World Conference on Racism, citing lingering disputes over the review document’s language.

On the call, which the Huffington Post managed to listen in on, National Security Council aide Samantha Power stressed that while progress had been made on the text of the Durban II document, not enough had been done to get the United States to the table.

The current working text, she said, “met two of our four red lines frontally, in the sense that it went no further than reparations and it did drop all references to Israel and all anti-Semitic language. But it continued to reaffirm, in toto, Durban I. And while it did drop specific references to defamation, it continues to include very problematic language on incitement… that are out of line with core U.S. commitments to free speech. So that’s where we have been for a couple weeks, with a text that is dramatically improved… [but] also ratifies the U.S. decision to walk away in the sense that it did seem to spur the other delegations to go back to the drawing board… We have not reengaged in any kind of formal way with this process. Our red lines remain our red lines… In order for us to participate in the negotiations, to sit behind the placard, to be involved in a frontal way, much more would need to be done. And all four of our red lines will need to be met.”

via Obama Team Tells Jewish Leaders: UN Durban Text Crosses “Red Line”.

Alzheimer trial yields positive results

Alzheimer trial yields positive results

A potential treatment for Alzheimer’s, which is designed to tackle the underlying causes of disease, has given promising results in its first clinical trial.

Scientists at University College London gave a new drug called CPHPC to five patients for three months. They found that it removed a blood protein called SAP, which is believed to be involved in the formation of damaging “plaques” in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients.

The treatment caused no side-effects and the patients showed no clinical deterioration during the trial, though it did not last long enough for the researchers to assess clinical benefits. The details are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Rececca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust which part-funded the study, said the results “are cause for cautious optimism. New treatments for Alzheimer’s disease are desperately needed, and it is possible that this small molecule could be a future candidate.”

via FT.com / UK – Alzheimer trial yields positive results.

The Corporate Lobbyists Behind the Tea Parties

The Corporate Lobbyists Behind the Tea Parties  by Jane Hamsher

Anyone who has watched Fox News of late has seen them talking about the April 15 “tea party” demonstrations, which they take pains to characterize as a spontaneous grassroots uprising against government spending that they are simply “covering.”

Neil Cavuto said:

We are are going to be in the middle of these protests because at Fox, we do not pick and choose these rallies and protests. We were there for the Million Man March, even though, as I pointed out, it turned out to be well shy of a million men.

The Million Man March happened in 1995. Fox News didn’t go on the air until 1996.

Why all the effort to distance themselves from the teabaggers? It’s obvious they are integrally involved — Fox has given them millions in free publicity, despite the fact that there’s no evidence of “ratings gold” here. Four of their biggest stars will be appearing at the rallies, Fox Nation will be hosting a “virtual tea party,” Glenn Beck is holding a $500 a plate fundraiser for them and Fox has been officially promoting the entire affair as the FNC Tax Day Tea Parties:

via The Corporate Lobbyists Behind the Tea Parties | CommonDreams.org.

Economy Bottomed Out? No End in Sight

Economy Bottomed Out? No End in Sight  by Dean Baker

Many economic analysts have seized on several recent economic reports to claim that the economy has bottomed out and that the upturn is in sight. This analysis badly misreads the data.

The first number to spur the optimism was the big 22.2% jump in new housing starts from January to February. That is impressive, except that the February number was only 4.5% above the December number. Looking more closely, we see that new housing permits were up by 3% in February, exactly offsetting the decline in January.

In other words, houses that were not started in January due to the weather were instead started in February. The January downturn was due to the weather and the February uptick was therefore an artifact of weather. Weather also explains the upturn in February housing sales data.

Analysts also touted the relatively good chain stores sales data for March. While sales were not great compared with year ago levels, they were quick to point out that they could have been worse.

The factor that many analysts seemed to miss was that many stores have gone out of business over the last year, while very few new stores have opened. This means that the same absolute level of retail sales for the economy as a whole should mean a big jump in business for the chains.

via Economy Bottomed Out? No End in Sight | CommonDreams.org.

Regulating Radioactivity: Derision for Uranium Disposal Decision

Regulating Radioactivity: Derision for Uranium Disposal Decision – by Judy Fahys

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission assured Rep. Jim Matheson and other Congress members it will stay true to its commitment to see that depleted uranium can be disposed of safely in Utah and elsewhere.

But the agency doesn’t detail how it reached its decision to stick to its 1981 system, which treats depleted uranium as “Class A” waste, the standard category for the least hazardous low-level waste.

Matheson, of Utah, and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., hope to find at least some of those answers in the thousands of pages of documents that they have requested from NRC and that are due next Monday.

Markey, the chairman of the House energy and environment subcommittee, likened the NRC’s handling of depleted uranium to giving a “C” student an “A” grade before the final exam, only in this case the consequences are much more serious and enduring.

“When the NRC’s normal process is subverted,” Markey said in a news release, “it creates confusion and doubt and reduces the trust that the American people have in their regulator.”

But, in his April 9 letter, NRC Chairman Dale Klein noted regulators will look closely at the disposal of large quantities of “DU,” as it’s commonly called, before uranium enrichment facilities begin to need disposal in 2011.

via Regulating Radioactivity: Derision for Uranium Disposal Decision | CommonDreams.org.

Most US firms paid no income taxes in ’90s

OPS:  Check the date of this one.  An oldie, but it’s still happening

Most US firms paid no income taxes in ’90s
More than half avoided levies during boom years

By Warren Vieth, Los Angeles Times | April 11, 2004

WASHINGTON — More than half of US corporations paid no federal income taxes during the boom years of the late 1990s, and those that did were able to shelter much of their income, according to congressional accountants.

The report by the General Accounting Office raises questions about whether the corporate income tax burden is too light and distributed unequally. It could undermine arguments that US companies are overtaxed and provide ammunition to politicians and activists who claim companies are using loopholes to avoid paying their fair share.

“This describes a problem in the corporate tax system in which a good many of these companies are avoiding any tax obligation at all,” said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat and former state tax commissioner who requested the GAO study. “We’ve got a bad tax law that tells ordinary folks, `You pay up,’ and allows some of the largest enterprises to avoid paying.”

via Most US firms paid no income taxes in ’90s – The Boston Globe.

Corn, Soy Yields Gain Little From Genetic Engineering: Study

OPS:  Depends on what you think the goal was. Was this about higher yields, or a Machiavellian attempt at control of the worlds food supply.

Corn, Soy Yields Gain Little From Genetic Engineering: Study

WASHINGTON – The use of genetically engineered corn and soybeans in the United States for more than a decade has had little impact on crop yields despite claims that they could ease looming food shortages, a study released on Tuesday concluded.

“A hard-nosed assessment of this expensive technology’s achievements to date gives little confidence that it will play a major role in helping the world feed itself in the forseeable future,” said the report by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The study evaluated the effect on corn and soybean crop yields of genetically engineered varieties commercialized in the United States over the past 13 years, examining peer-reviewed academic studies that date back to the early 1990s.

“Based on that record, we conclude that GE (genetic engineering) has done little to increase overall crop yields,” it said.

The report said genetically engineered soybeans account for 90 percent of soybeans grown in the United States, while genetically engineered corn accounts for 63 percent of the US corn crop.

“Overall, corn and soybean yields have risen substantially over the last 15 years, but largely not as a result of the GE traits,” the report said. “Most of the gains are due to traditional breeding or improvement of other agricultural practices.”

via Corn, Soy Yields Gain Little From Genetic Engineering: Study | CommonDreams.org.

China’s Steel Mills, Gov’t-Owned Zombies Still Walking

China’s Steel Mills, Gov’t-Owned Zombies Still Walking

This is what happens when you have “free trade” with non-free traders

The following article originally appeared on TradeReform.org.

This is what happens when you have “free trade” with non-free traders. China’s steel companies are government owned. Steel production is controlled by central government plan and local government jockying… not the market. China is the least efficient steel producing country. But their industry keeps growing and flooding the market. It continues growing today, in the recession.

China has far too many steel companies, more than 700 at last count. Add in iron companies and companies that roll or otherwise shape steel, and the total comes to more than 7,000. Despite repeated government attempts to force them to consolidate into fewer, bigger companies, most of them are still small and inefficient.

By rights, many companies should have closed. Instead, they march on like zombies, China’s industrial undead.

At a time when financing for most mining firms has all but disappeared, China has been a lone source of capital, playing sugar daddy abroad to shore up the future of the domestic steel industry. Last week, Wuhan Iron and Steel Group Corp., or WISCO, one of China’s largest steel producers, agreed to invest a total of $240-million to acquire a 20-per-cent stake in Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines Ltd. and a 25-per-cent stake in the company’s Bloom Lake iron ore development project in Quebec.

via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.

Rash of Bank Failures: 23 in 2009 Alone

Rash of Bank Failures: 23 in 2009 Alone

In all of 2008, when the recession was thought to be at its worst, just 25 banks failed

On Friday two more of the nation’s banks failed, bringing the total of bank failures in 2009 to 23, just two shy of the total number of banks that failed last year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Company stepped in to takeover Cape Fear Bank of Wilmington, N.C. and New Frontier Bank of Greeley, Colo. After state regulators closed them down last week.

Cape Fear Bank, which was sold to a Charleston, S.C. bank in a deal brokered by the FDIC, held assets worth $492 million and deposits totaling $403 million at the end of March. The institution’s failure is expected to cost the FDIC approximately $131 million.

via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.

Fannie Mae CEO May Run TARP

Fannie Mae CEO May Run TARP

Allison’s most important job may be that of a salesman.

The Obama administration is reportedly on the verge of naming current Fannie Mae CEO Herb Allison to oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Reuters is reporting that the announcement could come as early as this week.

If confirmed, Allison would replace Bush holdover Neel Kashkari as Assistant Secretary for the Office of Financial Stability. Allison would be charged with administering the bank-stabilization program designed to clear the banks balance sheets of toxic assets. In addition, it is likely that he will also be tasked with compelling Congress to release more money for the purpose of sparking lending.

Allison is currently running mortgage giant Fannie Mae. He has been in that position since the government took over the company in September. Currently, he is working for free, so his new gig would come with a giant pay increase.

via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.

How the American Economy Must Change

How the American Economy Must Change

Our culture became the hallmark of materialism, consumerism and self-indulgence. To spend was to live. To spend was to be successful. To spend was to be American. Actually it was overspending

The following article originally appeared on SearchWarp.com.

For a long time the US economy has been driven by consumer spending, meaning that over 70 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, the measure of all economic activity, has resulted from people spending their money. No surprise when you understand that our culture became the hallmark of materialism, consumerism and self-indulgence. To spend was to live. To spend was to be successful. To spend was to be American. Actually it was overspending.

From 1997 through 2007 consumer spending rose much faster than GDP and went from 67.0 percent to 71.6 percent of GDP. It was not because Americans were making more money or using their savings. It resulted from easy credit. First it was chiefly through credit cards. Then it was by refinancing home mortgages and through home equity loans; this was possible during a period of rising home values, which itself was driven by making money for mortgages far too easy. More mortgages, more borrowing, more cash, more spending – until the housing bubble burst in the summer of 2007. From 1997 through 2006, Americans withdrew some $9 trillion in cash from the equity stored up in homes, and credit card debt spiked to unprecedented levels. This postponed the inevitable. And along with this manipulated consumer demand and easy credit came incredible overbuilding of houses and all kinds of retail stores, which is why you are now seeing hundreds of Starbucks stores closing as well as the closing of chains like Circuit City.

via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.

The Forgotten Debt

The Forgotten Debt

No country in the world carries a deficit like the United States – no five countries combined carry a deficit like the U.S

America’s unfunded obligations have become infamous around the world. We have an outstanding national debt of over $11 trillion (more than half of which was accumulated by the Bush administration alone). We have unfunded entitlement payments to social security, Medicare, and other national programs which David Walker – former Comptroller General of the United States – estimates to be in excess of $50 trillion. We have consumer debt which has seen Americans take out roughly $9 trillion in credit and home equity stakes in the past decade.

However, there is another menace facing the United States which is almost completely overlooked: the trade deficit.

Every American knows that the U.S. government runs multibillion dollar budget deficits every year, but very few realize that the trade deficit is just as high as the budget short falls. During the Bush administration the government accrued an estimated $5.6 trillion in budget deficits, but over that same time period the economy accrued an additional $4.8 trillion in trade deficits.

via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.

Boston College Campus Police: “Using Prompt Commands” May Be a Sign of Criminal Activity

Boston College Campus Police: “Using Prompt Commands” May Be a Sign of Criminal Activity

Should Boston College Linux users be looking over their shoulders?

On Friday, EFF and the law firm of Fish and Richardson filed an emergency motion to quash [pdf] and for the return of seized property on behalf of a Boston College computer science student whose computers, cell phone, and other property were seized as part of an investigation into who sent an e-mail to a school mailing list identifying another student as gay. The problem? Not only is there no indication that any crime was committed, the investigating officer argued that the computer expertise of the student itself supported a finding of probable cause to seize the student’s property.

via Boston College Campus Police: “Using Prompt Commands” May Be a Sign of Criminal Activity | Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Chalabi: Bush conspired with Iran

Chalabi: Bush conspired with Iran

hmed Chalabi, once a darling of rightwing power brokers in Washington, D.C. for his support of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, is not a man to be taken at his word.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that he never says things of acute interest.

In a recent interview with Lebanese news outlet Dar Al-Hayat, Chalabi accuses former President George W. Bush of conspiring with Iran before the fall of Saddam.

Here’s the scoop, via Foreign Policy:

[Al-Hayat]: If you want to describe George Bush, then how would you describe him?

[Chalabi]: A man with very little skill and knowledge.

[Al-Hayat]: He did Iran a great service by toppling Saddam?

[Chalabi]: Iran benefited from toppling Saddam. Bush didn’t mean to do it a favor but it was clear that Iran would benefit from Saddam’s fall. I am convinced that Saddam would not have fallen except for an implicit agreement between America and Iran.

[Al-Hayat]: This happened?

[Chalabi]: Yes, of course it did.”

This man was once promoted as a possible leader of Iraq.

via The Raw Story » Chalabi: Bush conspired with Iran.

UK police stage ‘pre-emptive raids’ on climate activists

UK police stage ‘pre-emptive raids’ on climate activists

If you thought former President George W. Bush’s doctrine of “pre-emptive war” was freaky, try this one on for size.

This just in from the Guardian:

Police have raided dozens of homes across the country as they questioned climate change protesters planning action this summer against coal-fired power stations and airports.

More than 200 officers carried out a pre-emptive raid early on Monday, arresting 114 people thought to be preparing a protest at the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire.

Yesterday it emerged that as the campaigners were in custody, officers raided homes around the UK, seizing computer equipment and mobile phone records.

All of those arrested but not charged for conspiracy to commit criminal damage and aggravated trespass were released yesterday on police bail – many with onerous conditions, including bans on approaching any UK power station or attempting to disrupt their operations.

The Independent has more:

via The Raw Story » UK police stage ‘pre-emptive raids’ on climate activists.

The Latest Absurdity in the Fight to Conserve Water: Making Rainwater Harvesting Illegal

The Latest Absurdity in the Fight to Conserve Water: Making Rainwater Harvesting Illegal

Absurd laws are challenging the collection in some states, while others are embracing the practice.

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times described the latest absurdity in the never-ending search to quench the thirst for water: ownership of rainwater and, more precisely, the illegality of rainwater harvesting.  Residents and communities in parts of Colorado are turning to this ancient practice of collecting and storing rain to fulfill their domestic water needs, including flushing toilets and watering lawns.  Using this “grey” water, as it is called, relieves pressure on water resources and can be extremely efficient.

Many long-time water users, however, object to the practice.

These so-called water buffaloes argue that people who collect rainwater are taking away from their water by collecting the water before it has a chance to flow into a river from which they obtain water.  Effectively, they argue, the rainwater belongs to them – they own the rain that falls from the sky as part of their water allocation, even though 97 percent of the rainfall that falls on soil does not reach a river.   The bad news?  The law in Colorado stands behind those water buffaloes.

via The Latest Absurdity in the Fight to Conserve Water: Making Rainwater Harvesting Illegal | Water | AlterNet.

Knaan talks w/ Davey D about the truth behind the Somali Pirates

YouTube – Knaan talks w/ Davey D about the truth behind the Somali Pirates.

Thailand in Troubled Waters

Thailand in Troubled Waters

New America Media, News analysis, Andrew Lam, Posted: Apr 14, 2009 Review it on NewsTrust

Editor’s note: As conflicts between two political groups, the so-called “red-shirts” and “yellow-shirts,” threaten to tear Thailand apart, its ailing 81-year-old king may not be able to keep the country together. The tourist mecca of Southeast Asia is sailing into unknown and turbulent waters, writes NAM editor Andrew Lam.


 He’s the author of Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora .

“It don’t matter if you’re black or white.” So goes an old Michael Jackson song that resonates now in American politics (and on American Idol). But in the current political crisis in Bangkok, it still matters very much, possibly to the point of civil war, if you wear red or yellow.

According to Thai police, up to 40,000 anti-government “red-shirt” protesters have scattered around the Thai capital, blocking roadways and entrances to upscale shopping malls. A few days earlier, in the nearby beach town of Pattaya, they managed to scare away leaders attending the Asian economic summit and attack Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s own convoy, causing injuries to several members. The prime minister barely got away. His declaration of a state of emergency was only met with more riots by the red shirts. They only began to break up when thousands of soldiers moved in.

Many of these red shirt protestors were trucked in from rural areas. Fierce supporters of exiled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawsastra, who was ousted in 2006 when he was traveling abroad, and charged with corruption in absentia, the protestors are now threatening to bring down the economy as well. Foreign investors are driven away by the unrest and tourism, already suffering from Thailand’s instability, is predicted to sink even further.

via Thailand in Troubled Waters – NAM.

Young and Gay in the Bible Belt: ‘My Mom Came at Me With a Butcher Knife!’

Young and Gay in the Bible Belt: ‘My Mom Came at Me With a Butcher Knife!’

For many Bible Belt gays, “home” is not a haven from the outside world. Home may be more dangerous than the streets.

The crisis gay youth face in the Bible Belt struck home particularly hard for me this week while dining with members of a gay/straight alliance in a small Southern town.

After asking the conversation-opener of the group — “So, would you like to all share your coming out stories with me?” — a young woman on my right named Angie* immediately burst out, “My mother came at me with a butcher knife!”

Stunned, I was trying to process this when a young woman to my left whispered, “You don’t want to hear my story, it’s too violent.” More violent than your mother attacking you with a butcher knife? How is that possible? What does that mean?

I usually visit with the gay/straight alliance students during my campus visits. At this particular tiny university town in a remote corner of the South, we had a room to ourselves at a not-very-fancy Chinese restaurant in a strip mall. The students were adorable — sweet, eager to please, charming.

via Young and Gay in the Bible Belt: ‘My Mom Came at Me With a Butcher Knife!’ | Sex and Relationships | AlterNet.

Tax Day: You Pay Your Taxes — Why Don’t the Rich Pay Their Share?

OPS: and what about Corporates? in the 90′s over half paid nothing. YOU made up the difference.

Tax Day: You Pay Your Taxes — Why Don’t the Rich Pay Their Share?

Few Americans realize just how incredibly little our nation’s wealthy now pay in taxes. Our grandparents seriously taxed the rich. Why can’t we?

Our nation needs a plan to pay for long-overdue investments in education, health and retrofitting our energy infrastructure. Nothing could be more obvious. But, just as obviously, we need a plan to pay for those investments.

Short-term borrowing, during an economic downturn, certainly makes sense. Long term, we need to do much more than borrow. We need to totally reverse 30 years worth of federal tax and budget policy.

George W. Bush, over his eight years, took tax and budget policy to the crony-capitalist limit. His White House racked up $5 trillion in national debt by waging reckless wars, shoveling lush contracts and bailouts to corporate and Wall Street insiders, and, perhaps most arrogantly of all, slashing already-low tax rates on the incomes of the super rich.

Few Americans realize just how incredibly little, historically speaking, our nation’s wealthy now pay in taxes.

In 1955, the year April 15 became the IRS tax-filing deadline, America’s top 400 taxpayers paid three times more of their income in taxes than the top 400 of 2006, the most recent year with IRS data available.

via Tax Day: You Pay Your Taxes — Why Don’t the Rich Pay Their Share? | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet.

The tea parties are AstroTurf — fake grassroots.

Fake Teabaggers Are Anti-Spend, Anti-Government: Real Populists Want to Stop Banks from Plundering America

The tea parties are AstroTurf — fake grassroots. But there is a real movement growing against corporate greed and government malfeasance.

This afternoon, groups of angry conservatives will gather on street corners and in parks across the country to protest.

They will carry signs and deliver speeches expressing outrage over the Democrats’ stimulus bill, over entitlements, over budget pork, over taxes. They will dump boxes of tea on the ground and wear three-cornered hats. The leading lights of the Republican Party will be on hand to cheer them on.

But as with so much on the right, these apparent displays of populist rage are not what they will seem.

Six weeks ago, two of us (Mark Ames and Yasha Levine) published an investigation exposing the nascent “Tea Party” protest movement for what it really is: a carefully planned AstroTurf (or “fake grassroots”) lobby campaign hatched and orchestrated by the conservative advocacy organization FreedomWorks. Within days, pieces of the scam had crumbled, exposing a small group of right-wing think tanks and shady nonprofits at its core.

via Fake Teabaggers Are Anti-Spend, Anti-Government: Real Populists Want to Stop Banks from Plundering America | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet.

NYT’s American Blind Spot

NYT’s American Blind Spot -  By Robert Parry

On Tuesday, the New York Times ran two editorials that staked out sound positions – on the need for the American Bar Association to resist right-wing pressures in evaluating judicial nominees and on the value of holding tyrants accountable. But in both cases, the Times demonstrated blind spots about parallels to itself and the U.S. media.

For instance, the Times likes President Barack Obama’s decision to restore the ABA to its traditional role of assessing the fitness of nominees to the federal bench after years of George W. Bush dismissing the ABA for its “liberal bias” and opting for ideological judgments from the right-wing Federalist Society.

However, the Times notes that the ABA – in a futile effort to get itself back into the good graces of the Republican administration – began to give unwarranted high marks to right-wing nominees as a way to shake its “liberal” label.

“The group regularly gave ‘well qualified’ and ‘qualified’ ratings to some of President George W. Bush’s most deeply flawed nominees,” the editorial said. “Conservatives will undoubtedly keep trying to intimidate the ABA. The group’s screeners should evaluate the Obama nominees based on their qualifications, judicial temperament and views of the law – without imposing any ideological litmus test.”

via Consortiumnews.com.

Georgia passes law honoring terrorists and traitors — look away, look away

OPS:  They ARE still fighting the Civil War in Dixie.

VOICES: Georgia passes law honoring terrorists and traitors — look away, look away

A time trip I like to take about once a year spirits me back to Sept. 19-20, 1863, at a spot along the Tennessee-Georgia border where soldiers did what soldiers do. And that includes dying — 3,969 of them — and being maimed, blinded, shattered and a variety of other almost-but-not-quite-lethal events we describe as wounding — another 24,430.

It was called the Battle of Chickamauga, and if you go to the visitor center at the battlefield, you’ll be captured, as I am on my annual treks, by the photographs of common men in rough blue and gray uniforms. Many of the warriors were mere boys. This is not the fancy dress Civil War portrayed by Hollywood.

Among the larger photos is one of Col. Cyrus Sugg of the Confederate Army’s 50th Tennessee Infantry, who commanded Gregg’s Brigade after Brig. Gen. John Gregg was shot in the neck. One of the plaques scattered around the battlefield even notes where “Sugg took command,” a phrase that appeals to me.

Unfortunately, Col. Sugg rated a calculation in one or both of the numbers above. He was wounded at Chickamauga, and then taken to a field hospital in Marietta, where he expired.

via ISS – VOICES: Georgia passes law honoring terrorists and traitors — look away, look away.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Taxes are the price of admission
to a civilized society

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Traces of explosives in 9/11 dust, scientists say

Traces of explosives in 9/11 dust, scientists say – by Elaine Jarvik

Tiny red and gray chips found in the dust from the collapse of the World Trade Center contain highly explosive materials — proof, according to a former BYU professor, that 9/11 is still a sinister mystery.

Physicist Steven E. Jones, who retired from Brigham Young University in 2006 after the school recoiled from the controversy surrounding his 9/11 theories, is one of nine authors on a paper published last week in the online, peer-reviewed Open Chemical Physics Journal. Also listed as authors are BYU physics professor Jeffrey Farrer and a professor of nanochemistry at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

For several years, Jones has theorized that pre-positioned explosives, not fires from jet fuel, caused the rapid, symmetrical collapse of the two World Trade Center buildings, plus the collapse of a third building, WTC-7.

The newest research, according to the journal authors, shows that dust from the collapsing towers contained a “nano-thermite” material that is highly explosive. Although the article draws no conclusions about the source and purpose of the explosives, Jones has previously supported a theory that the collapse of the WTC towers was part of a government conspiracy to ignore warnings about the 9/11 terrorists so that the attack would propel America to wage war against Afghanistan and Iraq.

The next step, Jones said in a phone interview on Monday, is for someone to investigate “who made the stuff and why it was there.”

A layer of dust lay over parts of Manhattan immediately following the collapse of the towers, and it was samples of this dust that Jones and fellow researchers requested in a 2006 paper, hoping to determine “the whole truth of the events of that day.” They eventually tested four samples they received from New Yorkers.

via Traces of explosives in 9/11 dust, scientists say.

China versus America: ‘Great Game’ for Global Order?

China versus America: ‘Great Game’ for Global Order? -by Park Sang-seek

The G20 summit in London ended with an optimistic note. But the final communique was a compromised document between the forces to preserve the basic architecture of the existing financial order and the forces to replace it with a new one: the first led by the Anglo-American partnership and the second by the BRICs with the support of the non-participating developing world. The Franco-German coalition took the intermediary position.

Notwithstanding this division, the most interesting phenomenon was an invisible struggle between the United States and China. From the perspective of international politics, the most serious issue in the 21st century will be whether China will challenge the U.S. dominant position in the international order, and if so, when and how it will. We can detect China’s true intentions and strategy for a new international order by examining the actions and policies it has been taking in dealing with the international financial crisis.

The game in the 21st century financial crisis is actually a game between the United States and China. It is reminiscent of the Great Game between the United Kingdom and Russia in the 19th century. In that Great Game Britain staged all-out military and diplomatic moves to contain Russia’s attempt to control Central Asia, particularly India.

U.S. President Obama said, shortly after the international financial crisis, that we are entering the beginning of the end of the crisis. I would say that we are entering the beginning of the end of U.S. hegemony in the world. The United States was one of the superpowers during the cold war period and has been the hegemonic power in the world since the end of the cold war.

via China versus America: ‘Great Game’ for Global Order?.

A danish scientist Niels Harrit, on nano-thermite in the WTC dust ( english subtitles )

Niels Harrit and 8 other scientists found nano-thermite in the dust from the World Trade Center.

He is interviewed on danish TV2 News.

People can see a full transcript, news, forum and the video in high quality here:

Another site in danish is encouraging people to stand forward demanding a new investigation here:

The full report from the scientists can be found here:

YouTube – A danish scientist Niels Harrit, on nano-thermite in the WTC dust ( english subtitles ).

Bankrupt Lehman Brothers Sitting On Enough Uranium Cake To Make A Bomb

Bankrupt Lehman Brothers Sitting On Enough Uranium Cake To Make A Bomb

Lehman Sits on Bomb of Uranium Cake as Prices Slump

April 14 (Bloomberg) — Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is sitting on enough uranium cake to make a nuclear bomb as it waits for prices of the commodity to rebound, according to traders and nuclear experts.

The bankrupt bank, in the throes of paying off creditors, acquired uranium cake “under a matured commodities contract” and plans to sell it when the market improves “to realize the best prices,” Chief Executive Officer Bryan Marsal said.

Lehman, once the fourth-largest investment bank, has an estimated $200 billion in unsecured liabilities left to pay. The uranium, which may be as much as 500,000 pounds, might fetch $20 million at today’s prices of about $40.50 per pound, said traders who asked not to be named because of the confidential nature of the data. Marsal said the traders’ estimate of Lehman’s uranium holding is “reasonable,” while declining to be more specific

via Lehman Sits on Bomb of Uranium Cake as Prices Slump (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.

U.S. Planning to Reveal Data on Health of Top Banks

White House Changes Course, Decides To Reveal Health Of Top Banks

U.S. Planning to Reveal Data on Health of Top Banks

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is drawing up plans to disclose the conditions of the 19 biggest banks in the country, according to senior administration officials, as it tries to restore confidence in the financial system without unnerving investors.

The administration has decided to reveal some sensitive details of the stress tests now being completed after concluding that keeping many of the findings secret could send investors fleeing from financial institutions rumored to be weakest.

While all of the banks are expected to pass the tests, some are expected to be graded more highly than others. Officials have deliberately left murky just how much they intend to reveal — or to encourage the banks to reveal — about how well they would weather difficult economic conditions over the next two years.

via U.S. Planning to Reveal Data on Health of Top Banks – NYTimes.com.

Report: Obama may keep some CIA torture details secret

OPS:  you mean so he isn’t FORCED to prosecute?

Report: Obama may keep some CIA torture details secret

President Barack Obama is “wavering” on whether to fully release details of the Bush administration’s approved torture techniques, according to a report in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal based on statements by “people familiar with the discussions.”

“Among the details in the still-classified memos is approval for a technique in which a prisoner’s head could be struck against a wall as long as the head was being held and the force of the blow was controlled by the interrogator, according to people familiar with the memos,” the paper reported.

“A decision to keep secret key parts of the three 2005 memos outlining legal guidance on CIA interrogations would anger some Obama supporters who have pushed him to unveil now-abandoned Bush-era tactics,” continued Journal reporters Evan Perez and Siobhan Gorman. “It would also go against the views of Attorney General Eric Holder and White House Counsel Greg Craig, people familiar with the matter said.

via The Raw Story | Report: Obama may keep some CIA torture details secret.